Dear Matthew,
The other day, Anu was saying he was going to start reading the Bible from the beginning and in chronological order. You laughed and said, “I raise you Leviticus”. It was funny. I, too, know this struggle, but I am glad to have overcome the phobia for Levitical edicts. Now I know them to be a pointer of Grace to the New Covenant of GOD’s Justified Act of Mercy. And now that I have said that, let me share how I have enjoyed reading the first three chapters of Genesis.
Imagine you were teaching Sunday school. You have a bunch of amazing children that remind you of GOD in all the beautiful ways. You want to bring order to the class but not appear to be a stuck-up-uncle from church. It’s time for them to stop playing and learn the lessons of the Bible for the day. How do you transition their attention from playing to learning? You mix it up then take away the playing. So you start with a game.
It is called the ‘Calling Game’. The rules are simple: everyone in the circle has to call out something they wish was present with them but isn’t. Something, not someone. You let them call out the ridiculous things. You better hope that they say the impossible things: their dad’s car, grandma’s village house chair, the pony from a tv show, a police car, the TV at home, the King’s horse (don’t ask), all the money in the world, Spiderman’s mask, toys, two headless chickens, a play station, and beach sand. You must not laugh or sound amused. Take every entry seriously. Take notes, too. That’s the only way this means anything. When they are done, all exhausted, tell them about the first Calling Game.
In the first Calling Game, GOD called into existence things that did not exist. Unlike your children, what GOD calls to be becomes. When GOD says, ‘let there be light’, there’s light (Genesis 1:3). GOD calls day and night and they don’t take up any other name since then (Genesis 1:5). GOD calls the firmament (Genesis 1:7), calls the waters together (Genesis 1:9), calls trees to grow (Genesis 1:11,12), sea creatures to birth and flying birds too (Genesis 1:20-22). When it’s time to make man, HE calls for man to be made in GODly Image and Likeness to have dominion (Genesis 1:26). You should tell them that GOD is the best caller in the Calling Game, and there lies the greatest lesson. Hopefully, your children realise that they are not GOD and that GOD calls what doesn’t exist to exist, whereas they call what exists to be present, and that couldn’t even happen.
Surely, someone is bound to have a sad face because they are disappointed. It will be your fault; you led them to play a game they could not win, and they will be right to feel sad. So what you do is you cheer them up. You tell them they can play in a way that ensures they win too. You tell them about the second player in the Calling Game, Adam.
You see, after GOD made the man from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), and placed him in the garden which was planted on the eastern side of Eden (Genesis 2:8,15), GOD said the man shouldn’t be alone (Genesis 2:18), GOD called it; not man. And so GOD brings all the animals for Adam to name, and whatever Adam called them, that was their acceptable name (Genesis 2:19,20). Adam was good at his job but his job was to work on what was already created or called by GOD. Adam’s creativity was planted firmly on GOD’s creativity. In some ways, Adam derived his from GOD’s.
Perhaps your children see that Adam needed GOD to call properly in the sense that if GOD did not first call, Adam would have nothing to call or be able to call at all. For us to succeed, it would be on what GOD has already done or designated for us to do. Hopefully, they learn that our way of participating in the Calling Game is when GOD calls us to join and tells us what to do in the game. We win when we listen to GOD tell us what to do. That’s how we play the Calling Game properly.
Then what’s the last instance of the calling game? No, not when Adam called his wife ‘Eve’. I’m talking about the time GOD called out to Adam, and then Adam didn’t play ball because he was hiding. When GOD came to play the Calling Game and Adam wasn’t placed where he ought to be, that was when the game got ruined in that installment.
So how do we ruin the game? By not staying where we should be. Going our own way – away from GOD – is how we stop playing the Calling Game with GOD.
So how do we play:
– We play by location: Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, east of Eden. Anywhere else would signal the end of the game as we know it originally
– We play by obedience: Adam was to eat from all the trees except the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Once he and his wife ate from that tree, the game was also over. We stop playing when we disobey, even in the midst of good things GOD has prepared for us.
– We play by making the right calls. When GOD asked Adam who told him he was naked and why he ate the fruit (Genesis 3:11), Adam called the woman the reason (Genesis 3:12). The woman called the serpent (Genesis 3:13). Nowhere did these beautiful creations of GOD say, ‘we did it, we are sorry’. There was no place for repentance, and so the game was ruined. We play the Calling Game when we accept the need for repentance because we falter.
And now we have something to work with. The Calling Game is not just about giving names; it is about dressing and keeping the garden (Genesis 2:15). The Calling Game is the calling we answer and the calling we exercise. We are all planted in various parts of the garden, and it calls for our obedience to the restrictions we are given by GOD alone.
When GOD calls you, answer with, ‘Here I am,’ and obey what HE calls you as your calling for life. Are you a preacher? Preach with passion! Are you a doctor? Heal with humanity! Are you a pilot? Fly with favour! Are you an engineer? Invent with inspiration! The list is a vast and detailed rendition of GOD’s Calling. We are called from the darkness to the light (which is) so great and marvelous, and we must embrace it (1 Peter 2:9).
By now, if your children are not already asleep, they are filled with awe and hopefully not bored. If you time it well, it would be time for a juice break. Until the next time, stay blessed brother.
Olatunde
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